2020: A Personal Reflection on the COVID-19 Pandemic

As everyone looks forward to 2021, let us not forget what we experienced in 2020. 2020 was unlike any year we have experienced in our lifetime. Terms like adaptability and flexibility were commonly used to describe ways to effectively deal with the pandemic. 2020 also taught us the importance of mental health, having a support network, and creating ways to balance our lives.

I was one of the fortunate ones who could continue to work remotely throughout the pandemic. Working in higher education is filled with many privileges and one of them was being able to work through the pandemic. Many, especially in the service, hospitality, retail, and restaurant business were unable to work for significant periods of time during the pandemic and suffered economic hardships unlike anything we have seen in recent history. And those who worked in the healthcare industry were inundated throughout the year as they were overloaded at times during COVID-19 surges and must have felt helpless to treat patients who subsequently passed away. These first responders did heroic work. Many experienced burnout and exhaustion. They also went weeks and months without being able to physically interact with their love ones for fear they might be asymptomatic and transmit the virus to others.

For teachers and students, their world was turned upside down. Many teachers went above and beyond the call of duty to transition to online teaching. Yet, I suspect most teachers yearn for a return to face-to-face teaching and learning. For students, the class of 2020 will always be remembered as the class that graduated during the pandemic. I believe what the pandemic exposed was the vast divide between the haves and have nots. For students from families of means, while online learning was not optimal, they were able to adapt and supplement their learning in various ways to learn sufficiently. For less affluent students, I fear 2020 was a difficult and possibly lost year and further exasperated the learning gap between socioeconomic classes. Schools tried their best to accommodate and make the best of a bad situation. Only time will tell the impact of 2020 on student learning.

In addition to the pandemic, there was social unrest with the tragedies of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery along with the national spotlight of a highly divisive presidential election and the political divide on COVID-19 measures like closing down businesses, wearing a mask, social distancing, and whether to open or close schools. Unlike previous national tragedies where we came together as a nation, 2020 was a year that exposed our vast divide across the country.

As 2021 approaches, what can we learn from 2020? I think this is an exercise for every person and organization to contemplate. Why? I am convinced 2020 and COVID-19 will not be the last time we encounter a pandemic or phenomenon that changes our way of life. In addition, people in general are not very good about learning from the past. So, let’s try to change this and learn from 2020 to inform our future. Here are my personal reflections on what I learn.

First, I realize I took for granted so many little things. Everything from simple things like sharing regular meals with my wife to failing to be there for my children when they needed me. The pandemic gave me pause to think and reflect on how I could be a better person and leader. Second, 2020 was a time of failed opportunities and transition for me. Despite my best efforts, I was unable to capitalize on a number of opportunities to personally and professionally grow. I realized that many people I worked with had a difficult time adapting and being flexible. Rather than seeing it as an opportunity, most people I saw struggled with change. As a leader, I learned that I have to be better at being attuned to the needs of the people around me and what can I do to make their situation better. As a result, I decided to seek out a new environment and make a change for myself. Only time will tell if I made the right call or not.

Beyond what I learn, I will remember 2020 as the year I lost a colleague to a disease he probably didn’t know he had until it hit him. In addition, I had another colleague who suffered a severe stroke due to complications from blood clots resulting from COVID-19. Unfortunately, I believe we tend not to internalize things until we are personally affected by someone close to us. With the loss of one colleague and the devastating effect of COVID-19 on another colleague, it made me realize how I have taken for granted my own health. This year I will experience a quiet Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday. While I will miss seeing my children, sacrificing one year for many future years seems like a small price to pay.

During tragedies and crises, people react differently depending on how it affected them personally. The closer the pandemic and any related aspects hit you, the greater the impact it had on one’s behaviors and beliefs. I learned about a colleague who lost his father due to COVID-19. I could see how it affected him and why he was so adamant about others learning from his family’s loss. If we look at our personal histories, we each have our own experiences. For example, over the past hundred years, I have been impacted by December 7th, 1941 and World War II, even though I was not born yet. Being of Japanese ancestry with family who resided in Hawaii, I grew up with the stigma others placed on me due to my ancestry. I learn to live and subsequently appreciate the historical aspects of Pearl Harbor and World War II. By reading oral histories from that time, I gained an appreciation for the time. It is often difficult for people of one time period to put themselves into a previous time period and understand why things happened in a certain way. This is not to say that a previous time period was right or wrong, but as Stephen Covey mentioned in one of his seven habits of highly effective people – seek first to understand, then to be understood.

Fast forward to 9/11/01, I was not personally impacted by the tragic events of this day. Like most, I watched in horror the numerous replays of the two planes hitting the twin towers in NYC. However, unlike the people of NYC or people who had a connection to someone who died on 9/11, after a while, my life returned to normal with the exception of air travel where we experienced a new normal of added security and we couldn’t accompany family members to their gates and send them off. Like December 7th, every year we commemorate 9/11 and the lives lost during and after the tragedy. Our way of life changed to a new normal. It remains to be seen whether we will adapt, learn and move forward from 2020 or just revert back to pre-pandemic norms. I suspect it will be a mix of both.

Finally, as I reflect on 2020, I hope we as a nation and world can come together and remember all the lives lost from the pandemic and honor their lives as we move forward to make this nation and world a better place to live. Unlike December 7th or 9/11, where we have memorials for all those who died on those respective days, I hope we as a nation and world will remember 2020 and all the lives lost by learning from this past year and not making the same mistakes in the future. To me, that would be the best way to honor our fallen colleagues, family, and friends from the COVID-19 pandemic.